Global South Attendance at Lambeth Conference Doubtful

05/22/2007

The participation by the Nigerian House of Bishops and bishops from other “Global South” Anglican provinces is doubtful, according to the Most Rev. Peter Akinola, Archbishop of Nigeria, who released a brief statement following news that invitations to the 2008 Lambeth Conference of Bishops have been issued.

The Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns, formerly rector of Truro Church in Fairfax, Va., and now a missionary bishop of the Church of Nigeria, was one of a handful of bishops (along with the Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, Bishop of New Hampshire) who did not receive an invitation to the Lambeth Conference, according to a statement distributed at a press conference in London May 22 by the Rev. Canon Kenneth Kearon, secretary general of the Anglican Consultative Council, and Tim Livesey, public affairs officer for the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury.

The invitation letter sent by Archbishop Williams noted that additional guest and ecumenical invitations will be forthcoming, and that some invitations may be withdrawn to “bishops whose appointment, actions or manner of life have caused exceptionally serious division or scandal within the Communion.”

“The withholding of invitation to a Nigerian bishop, elected and consecrated by other Nigerian bishops, will be viewed as withholding of invitation to the entire House of Bishops of the Church of Nigeria,” Archbishop Akinola stated.

In addition to making clear that the Church of Nigeria expects Bishop Minns to be invited, the two-paragraph statement issued by Archbishop Akinola also cast doubt on participation by a number of other provinces which have formed a “Global South” alliance. Last fall the Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa (CAPA) commissioned and received a report, “The Road to Lambeth,” which recommended that no bishops from Global South provinces attend the Lambeth Conference if the current causes of division in the Communion remained unresolved before the opening of the three-week conference on July 16, 2008.

“There is no point, in our view, in meeting and meeting and not resolving the fundamental crisis of Anglican identity,” the CAPA report stated. “We will definitely not attend any Lambeth Conference to which the violators of the Lambeth Resolution are also invited as participants or observers.”

In his statement, Archbishop Akinola reaffirmed the Church of Nigeria’s commitment to "The Road to Lambeth." The document has been endorsed by Nigeria’s House of Bishops as well as the house of bishops in roughly half a dozen other African provinces, according to Bishop Minns, who spoke with a reporter from The Living Church.

“While the immediate attention is focused on the invitation list, it should be remembered that this crisis in the Anglican Communion is not about a few individual bishops, but about a worldwide Communion that is torn at its deepest level,” Bishop Minns said in a statement made public after Archbishop Akinola’s. “This point was made repeatedly at the primates’ meeting in Dar es Salaam. Depending on the response of The Episcopal Church to the primates’ communiqué by Sept. 30, the situation may become even more complex. One thing is clear -- a great deal can and will happen before next July.”

This article comes from The Living Church Foundation
http://www.livingchurch.org/

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